'It's a crisis': The fight in the US over book bans
14.08.2026 DPA
In Lauren Groff’s bookshop, banned books take centre stage.
Anyone who walks through the front door of The Lynx sees the large dark-green shelf straight ahead with "Banned Books" written above it in big white letters.
On it are titles such as Anthony Burgess’s dystopian novel "A Clockwork Orange," Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary novel "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" or Stephenie Meyer’s "Twilight" vampire series. According to the authors’ association Pen America, all of these are among the books most frequently targeted.
Groff is herself a bestselling author and has celebrated success with works such as "Fates and Furies" and "The Vaster Wilds." There have also been efforts to ban her books.
Florida, where the 48-year-old lives with her family, is one of the US states with the most book bans, according to Pen America. In response, Groff opened The Lynx in 2024, named after the local lynx, also known as the Florida Bobcat, which is native to the Sunshine State.
"Watch us Bite Back" is written in big black letters above a mural on the outside wall of the shop in the city of Gainesville in northern Florida.
"This store would probably still be a pipe dream if the book bans hadn't happened," Groff told The New York Times at the opening. "I want this for me too. I don't want to live in a place where we stifle free expression."
Groff not only sells books that are being targeted elsewhere, she also organizes regular reading clubs about them and distributes them free of charge to schools.
Book bans are nothing new in the United States. They've been documented since the country was founded.
In principle, anyone and any organization can file a substantiated complaint about a book in a library, whether it be a school or public library.
The complaint must then be reviewed by professionally trained library staff, among other criteria, to decide whether the book stays where it is, or whether it should be moved to another section or removed from the collection altogether.
Complaints about books sharply higher
In recent years, particularly since US President Donald Trump’s first term in office, the number of complaints and the number of books that were actually removed from library shelves has changed dramatically, Pen America says.
"It's a crisis," information scientist Emily Knox from the University of Illinois says of the situation. The culture warriors have come to the libraries, schools and sometimes the bookshops, she says.
The numbers have never been like this, but the reasons for the complaints have stayed the same, she notes.
According to the latest figures from Pen America, a total of 3,743 books were banned from school libraries alone in the US in the 2024/2025 school year. Many of these books dealt in different ways with topics such as violence, sexuality, identity, death, grief, self-confidence or abuse.
"The freedom to read and learn, and the right to access information, ideas and knowledge, is among the most fundamental building blocks of a democratic society," Pen America says. Banning books from school libraries undermines that and violates human rights, according to the association.
Those filing complaints usually cite the protection of children and young people, saying the books contain content that is not appropriate or could even be dangerous for children.
Another argument is that the books are not actually banned but still available, for example in other libraries or in bookshops. They are being removed from children’s and young people’s direct reach for their protection, supporters say. That too is censorship, Pen America and others counter.
Complaints about books have always existed and everyone has the right to file them, wrote librarian Amanda Jones from the southern US state of Louisiana in her bestseller "That Librarian."
What is new, however, is that it is not individual people filing isolated complaints but that they are joining together into organizations, filing complaints in bulk and across wide areas, according to Jones.
Those responsible in libraries are then publicly intimidated and pressured via social media to ensure the books really are removed from the shelves. That also happened to Jones, who ended up defending herself in court.
Public intimidation of library staff
That is the culture war, Jones wrote, involving people and organizations such as the conservative activist association Moms for America who, often in step with Trump’s policies, want to restrict the rights of people from the queer community and use book bans to do so.
Moms for America did not want to comment on the issue when asked. Organizations have also formed on the other side, such as the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a group that wants to prevent any form of book banning.
One thing this culture war shows is very clear, information scientist Knox says: You wouldn't try to ban books if you didn't think reading was important.
No comments:
Post a Comment